Traveling through the Prosperous Pastoral of Peasant Girls

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Be a Master

The shrewd mother-in-law was worried about this natal sister-in-law, but she didn't know the truth of what she said, so she tentatively asked, "There are three in total, do you want anything else?"

Dagu didn't know there was anything else, but he didn't know that there were shrimps and dried fish, so he hesitated and said, "I need some other things."

"What else is it, is it shrimp bran?"

"Yes, and a bag of shrimp paste."

Through testing, the mother-in-law knew that she was lying, but she really wanted to play tricks on her, so she only gave her five catties of dried shrimp, which was based on 130 copper coins per catty, and a bag of fifty catties of shrimp peels, which was based on ten I gave it a catty of copper coins. At that time, the mother-in-law felt that she had been taken advantage of by the boss, but now it seems that she has suffered a big loss, and she must go to her to settle the accounts again.

"Grandmother, I think you can forget it. Dried shrimp is cheap, but shrimp bran is expensive. Think about it, my aunt is the same as my grandma's. I don't know how to eat shrimp bran. Grandma's They scolded the shrimp bran every day, and the big fat cheeks were ulcerated by the shrimp gun, and they don’t know how to eat it except feeding the shrimp bran to pigs!” The mother-in-law listened to the amused, and listened to the advice not to care about it with the aunt up.

The next day they came to Yushanju with their things again. Liu Tao cooked for the two nobles as usual, and the shopkeeper begged Liu Tao to leave it for the chef to cook. As long as the distinguished guests had eaten, they could cook for the ordinary recommended by customers.The father-in-law sees that there are still a lot of dried shrimps at home, so he should bring them over and sell them. Since Liu Tao and Jinyang are here, let them stay at the inn, so as not to have to hurry back after teaching every day. He got up early and came over early, so he agreed to the shopkeeper's proposal.

The father-in-law went to the academy to meet Jin Shan, and brought him to Yushanju, and introduced him to the shopkeeper Jin. The father-in-law was afraid that his son would not have a familiar background in the academy alone. If he offended anyone, the shopkeeper Jin would give him protection. .Jin Shan is already 17 years old, with a fair complexion and elegant demeanor, which has been praised by the treasurer Jin.

Living in the inn, there is no work to do every morning, so the two of them just go shopping with nothing to do. While shopping, they found that the nets of fishing nets are available for sale. The meshes of the nets are divided into three or four sizes. Yes, some are suitable for shrimping and some are suitable for fishing.This made them ecstatic, and the price was not too expensive after asking, so they planned to buy it later.Seeing the seedlings of fruit trees, they, who have a special liking for agriculture, were delighted to see that the grape seedlings and pickled seedlings were all grown in small bamboo baskets with soil. They were planted last year, and now they have germinated. The seedling seller said that it could bear fruit in the same year, because there are bamboo baskets, and when transplanting, it can be planted directly into the soil without damaging the root system of the seedlings. So I moved back to the inn in batches, forty of each kind.In the next few days, they bought a lot of grape seedlings and persimmons, and whenever my father-in-law came to Fucheng, he asked him to take a batch back.The future new home has four acres of land, and the two plan to build a small orchard on the four acres of land.

Those who can earn money are good guys now. As long as they don’t violate the current etiquette, morality and shame, people who can earn money are respected, because Jin Li and Liu Tao have endless good ideas, and they even talked about many things about the two families. never mind.Liu Tao's family had four acres of hillside land that couldn't be irrigated, and they couldn't earn two taels of silver in a normal year. Liu Tao and her father said that they would switch to cash crops.As for what to plant, it's up to Liu and Tao to make up their minds.

For a few days, the father-in-law took all the stocks to Yushanju and exchanged them for silver, and Liu Tao's teaching work was almost done.On the last day of the [-]-day betting period, Liu Tao cooked "Longjing Shrimp" for two noble people.

There is an allusion to this Longjing shrimp. It is said that in the past, an emperor went to Hangzhou in private. On this day, he and his entourage strolled to a certain hillside where tea was produced in Hangzhou. Deeply aware of the subtlety of the tea, he asked the tea farmer for some. The tea farmer was a stingy person, and he didn't know that he was in front of a nobleman.They came to a restaurant for dinner, and the emperor handed the small handful of tea leaves to Xiao Er to make tea. When Xiao Er took the tea leaves, he happened to let him see a corner of the dragon robe inside the emperor's coat.The emperor came to Hangzhou for a private visit to Weifu, and rumors had already spread through secret channels. The waiter hurried to tell the owner that the owner was cooking shrimp in the kitchen. The waiter put the tea on the chopping board and exaggeratedly told that the emperor had arrived.When he said that the emperor had come to eat at his restaurant, the panicked shopkeeper mistook the tea leaves for chopped green onions and sprinkled them into the pot until the fragrance of the tea leaves came out. Pick out the tea leaves and put the dishes out of the pot.This sloppy dish is elegant in color and unique in taste, and the clean tender green tea leaves paired with pink shrimps are pleasing to the eye.

Liu Tao asked the shopkeeper to bring fresh tea leaves. Although this ordinary tea is not as good as Yuqian Longjing, it is more expensive than fresh tea. This dish only left two distinguished guests with sighs. I have to go to the back kitchen to see this What a wonderful person made this dish.In fact, this thought came about after eating dried shrimp and black wolf fish. These dishes are quite different from the dishes I ate in Yushanju before. A discerning person can see that the shopkeeper secretly invited an expert Come to help out.When they saw that the cook was a beautiful little girl, they were shocked from ear to ear.

One of them, Wang Binglan, who claimed to be from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, praised the little girl's cooking skills and handed him a famous post saying: "If you have the opportunity to go to the capital in the future, you must go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find me. I will do my best as a landlord." Yes, when we arrive in the capital, it will be our family's territory. As long as you do your own thing, you will be fine as long as you mention my uncle, Mr. Wang..." After that, Liu Tao was rewarded with two silver ingots. There are two or two.

The two of them live in the inn, and when they have nothing to do in the morning and evening, they plan to set up two ecstasy arrays in the small river to estimate the amount of mesh used, because the activity of fish and shrimp is increasing with the increase of temperature Well, it won't work anymore if you use the old method to fish. If you use the ecstasy array, it will be much better.

An ecstasy array has a smaller mesh, specially designed to catch shrimps.One is the largest net, which is specially used to catch big black wolf fish.Once the two ecstasy formations are set up, you don’t have to work hard every day to fish for shrimps. Whether it’s shrimp or black wolf fish, they will automatically follow the nets of the ecstasy formations into a back-blocking warehouse that can hold hundreds of catties. When the time comes, just pour the catch into the bag.He and Jin Yang took the silver and bought a large number of meshes of various specifications for four taels, and bought a lot of rope and a large piece of tung oil cloth for one tael of silver. Create a ecstasy.

The two distinguished guests have returned to the capital, all the stock at home has been delivered, and more than ten recipes have been passed on.They settled the account with the shopkeeper, including 620 catties of dried shrimp, 66 catties of dried shrimp, and 250 catties of dried fish, earning a total of more than [-] taels of silver.The shopkeeper gave them a stack of banknotes and told them: "Just send these good things here. The price is still the agreed price. We want as much as you can. Especially the dried black wolf fish, if you have it, send it as soon as possible." ...."

The shopkeeper has seen a business opportunity. Since Liu Tao taught the recipe, he has introduced new dishes every day. Seeing that the number of customers is increasing every day, many people come here to eat the shrimp and blackbird that they have never eaten before. wolf fish….Some people who have eaten dried black wolf fish feel that not only it is not poisonous, but also extremely delicious, so they bet with many people to eat the dishes made of dried black wolf fish, and the people who lost the bet coaxed more people to come to Yushan Ju bet, Yushanju is full of climaxes every day, and there are even a lot of people in the market, and even started queuing up for reservations.There were not many dried Wulang fish, but now they are used up.

Liu Tao gave 100 taels to the shopkeeper for teaching the recipes, and the 100 taels are her own, so she doesn't have to share them with her parents-in-law.My parents said to their in-laws: "These days I occupied your yard, used your fishing nets, burned your firewood, and ate several meals for nothing, and used a lot of salt. If you divide it, you don't want a fraction of three taels of silver!"

"That's good, we will be in-laws in the future, and firewood is not worth a lot of money. How can we take advantage of you?" Although the mother-in-law evaded it a few times, the mother still didn't want to divide it up. silver.One is that the mother-in-law wants to take advantage of it, and the other is that Jin Yang's grandma has been nagging her so many times, and the three taels of silver just blocked their mouths.In addition, they both accepted each other in their hearts to make money through the two partnerships. Liu Tao's family had money, and Jin Yang's grandmother also gradually changed her view of Liu Tao. He still has the ability to make a lot of money, and their marriage is even more certain.

Liu Tao told her mother-in-law's family again and again: "Don't tell about the money you made. If my grandma finds out, she will at least blackmail my family for 300 taels of silver..."

Looking at the six 100 taels of banknotes in hand, my mother couldn't sleep well for several days, and agreed with Liu Tao: "Taoer, save the 100 taels first, and it will be your dowry money in the future."

Liu Tao told them: "The 100 taels of silver is at my own disposal now, and the dowry in the future will be used to generate more money. This mere 100 taels will not bother the elders to think about it!"

She and Jin Yang's dream of getting rich succeeded in the first battle. Not only did the two of them not have the slightest satisfaction, but it even aroused their enthusiasm for wealth.After the stock was sold out, they immediately put into the action of making the ecstasy array.With this big income, the father-in-law also rented out the ten acres of land that his family planted every year, and started a side job full-time at home.At the beginning, they did not agree to throw away their old business, so it was Jin Yang and Liu Tao who persuaded them: "If you don't seize the business opportunity now, wait until the slack season. How much grain can be harvested in two seasons a year after planting ten acres of land, it will not exceed Four thousand catties, how much is four thousand catties of grain, calculated as one tael of 150 catties, at most 25 taels of silver. We specialize in shrimp fishing, how many 25 taels do we have to earn a month?"

They did the math, and in just over three months, each family got 700 taels. Hasn't it been hard work in farming?If the land is rented out, if you lose money, can you get it back next year?What a brain!
Liu Tao's parents don't want to return the land, and their reasons are even more bizarre: "If we don't farm the land, your grandparents will be able to guess that we made a lot of money fishing for shrimps. No, no, nothing to say!"

"Mom and Dad, let's not plant the land of Brother Jinyang's house. Don't we still have ponds and hillsides? Brother Jinyang and I have also seen that pond. It can be made into a pond specially for raising crayfish. Don’t look at the dirty crayfish and look disgusting, and no one wants to eat them. However, if they become large-scale in the future, they will be sold at a high price. Our hillsides can be used to build houses, which is far away from our current home, grandparents So they can't monitor us every day, do you want them to blackmail people with the excuse of letting us move?"

"Then what about food? You have to give your grandparents two hundred catties of food every year?"

"Food can be bought with money. In previous years, the grain harvested from the six mu of land was sold for only a few silver. We can earn as much as taels a month selling fish and shrimp. Besides, our family still has four mu of hillside land. In addition to building a house Planting trees can also interplant food..."

Only then did their thoughts come to life, and the land was returned to Jin Yang's family. Then Dad and his father-in-law went to the pond and the hillside to plan the site, because it was more than a mile away from the village, and no matter what they did, they were not afraid of people's eyes.However, the two of them were very dissatisfied with the old-fashioned old house at home, and they were thinking about their own plans to design a new house. Of course, the two of them accompanied this matter.

When they choose the house site on the hillside, they are not afraid of being too ostentatious, they can build a duplex villa-like building, but their design is not bad, it is a large courtyard, but the interior is larger than an ordinary courtyard.The main house is not a one-story house, but is more than twice as wide as a normal house with raised eaves and ridges. There are corridors inside, and there are only four bedrooms, the rest of which are bathrooms and kitchen storage rooms. There are about 200 rooms. flat.Now build the main room first, and don't worry about the rest of the wing rooms and the gate of the courtyard wall for the time being.

After the rough planning is finished, Liutao and Jinyang will explore the barren pond. This pond is shaped like a sub-waisted gourd. If you want to breed crayfish here, you have to spend a lot of time and effort to clean it up.Because the inside of the Huangshui Pond is uneven, most of it is exposed to the surface of the water. Where there is water, the water is four meters deep, so it must be leveled.The land in front of the pond is owned by the third uncle's house and the uncle's house, each occupying a piece of land, the uncle's house is close to the river, and the third uncle's house is close to the pond.The third uncle's family is okay, but the uncle's family is a bit difficult.Because the pond diverts water from the small river, you have to dig ditches through the land of the two families, and you will lose the young crops that have grown in the field. It’s just like the grandpa and aunt. It’s a headache to think about it. Later, I went to discuss it with his family, and it really was. He refused immediately.As a last resort, I can only go to the fourth master who is next to his house to discuss it. It would be good if the waterway passes through his house, but it is a little farther away.Unfortunately, his family also disagreed.

In the end, the father and father-in-law thought of a way, through the mediation of the father-in-law, let the father-in-law take out a good land to replace the land of the uncle's house.

The land of the uncle's family is four acres in total. When the father's family was divided, each family was allocated an average of four acres, but the four acres of land counted. The four acres of land of the father are on the slope, because there is no water. It was the last time. Later, after a quarrel between my mother and grandma, I gave a barren pond as a supplement.In fact, this barren pond has not been used since it was obtained, and it has been left there abandoned.Now if we want to use the pond to raise crayfish (crayfish), we have to dig a channel through the river in the land of the uncle's house and the third uncle's house, and the uncle will block it in every possible way.Because the land of the uncle’s house is close to the river, after the ecstasy formation is completed, a shack has to be built on his land to watch over it. How about replacing his land with an equivalent land once and for all?
When the two of them returned to Jin Yang's house, they saw the eldest aunt loading the car with shrimp chaff. She just saw her mother-in-law telling her, "Today is March [-]th. I'm going back to my mother's house to visit relatives and grandparents."

When the mother-in-law asked about the sales of those dried shrimps, the aunt was surprisingly happy and said: "Sister, you don't know, at first no one wanted the dried shrimps, but my little dead girl stole a lot of them. Later, from A merchant came from Fucheng and saw the dried shrimps. He made rounds for 180 copper coins per catty, took them to a restaurant in the town, taught the chef to cook a dish with dried shrimps, and sold them for another 200 copper coins per catty. When we got to the restaurant, he asked if there were any shrimps. I don’t know what shrimps are, so I regret it all..."

"Where are those shrimp husks, how do you eat them?"

The mother-in-law heard it, she sold the dried shrimps at a high price, and the merchants resold them at a high price. Hearing that she didn't say anything, she must have sold them at a higher price.When she came this time, the mother-in-law wanted to hear his complaints after being cheated. Not only did she not complain, but she actually made money.Seeing that the mother-in-law asked about the shrimp bran, she said, "I didn't know how to eat those shrimp bran at first, and no one came to buy them. Later, I used a stone mill to grind them into powder and made them into 尜尜 soup, not to mention how delicious they are." , and later recommended to the restaurant..."

This time it was the mother-in-law's turn to be deflated, and she was feeling angry when the aunt approached and asked, "Sister, how much do you have for your dried shrimps, and the dried shrimps, please give them to me too, I will increase the price for you this time." , as much as you have!”

The mother-in-law didn't agree, and besides, there was nothing in the warehouse except shrimp bran, so my aunt saw her evade, so she forced her way into the warehouse.I went through the bags one by one, but didn't see any dried shrimps, so I knew what my mother-in-law said was true.

Without the dried shrimps, she would not let the dried shrimps go, and forcibly bought two bags at the price of twelve copper coins per catty. Liu Tao and Jinyang came in while they were carrying them out.

Liu Tao didn't know the inside story yet, so after greeting her aunt, she said, "Auntie, it's not easy for you to come here by car, why don't you take some (shrimp bran) back?" After giving her a wink, Liu Tao woke up, feeling something tricky inside.

Just because of Liu Tao's words, she got a great favor from her aunt, so she went down the slope and asked for two more bags.After she left, the mother-in-law repeated what the aunt had just said, and couldn't help complaining that Liu Tao was talkative. If she processed the shrimp bran into shrimp bran powder, wouldn't it be another good income?Well now, there is only half a bag of shrimp bran left. If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t be able to feed most of the shrimp bran to pigs.

(End of this chapter)